The Fifth of July
by HopelesslyUnfinished
Summary: Following a large Fourth of July birthday bash, Steve finds himself up against Tony and Bucky, who have found an odd common ground in attempting to find new ways to annoy the new centenarian. A handful of the other Avengers tag along out of post-holiday boredom and curiosity.


Steve rolled over as he woke up, stretching from the day before. The Avengers had hosted a giant party on the lawn for all their families, complete with barbecuing and fireworks. The team had gone all out, especially once Bucky had told them that it was his birthday. Clint had been the first to ask how old he was turning, and when he deflected the question with "old enough", Tony had perked up. Within seconds, Tony had pulled up Steve's file and gleefully shared that Steve was about to be a centenarian. Natasha had asked Bucky why he hadn't mentioned this earlier and Bucky had flatly explained that as a 101-year-old man, it didn't seem like that big a deal.

Steve chuckled and got out of bed to go find some of the leftovers from the party. Even though everyone had invited friends and family, they still had a ton of food leftover. It had been a party for all ages, so Clint and Scott had brought their families out, Thor had invited his 'Midgardian friends', and a wide array of SHEILD agents, scientists, and Tony's friends had been there. They had all agreed this wasn't a press event, so it had been a relaxed evening with everyone goofing off.

He wandered into the kitchen to find Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Bucky, and Tony perched throughout the room. Steve yawned and asked generally, "Good morning, everyone. All the kids head home already?"

"Isn't everyone here a kid to you except Bucky?" asked Bruce through a mouthful of food. His own mouth full of food, Tony held up a hand for a high five, which Bruce gave without looking. Steve ignored the joke, sitting between Bucky and Natasha at the island. He looked enviously at a huge slice of birthday cake Bucky was eating.

Tony hopped up from his seat at the end of the island near the fridge, "We saved the last slice for you, Sam Eagle. I'll get it."

Clint was seated on the counter near the door and finally answered Steve's question, "All my kiddos are back at home with mom, and Scott flew with Cassie back this morning. Everyone else either had work this morning or flight to catch."

"So, nope," Tony filled in, "No one has any of their kids here this afternoon, or as you appear to be calling it 'morning'."

"Oh, Peter went back with May then?" joked Steve.

The room went silent as Tony stopped moving with his back to them, having just slid the slice onto a plate. Steve sat back and waited, amusedly. He looked confident, but Bucky could tell he was bracing for any number of reactions. Bucky kept eating his cake, while everyone else glanced between the two like a tennis match. Considering all the old man jokes Steve had put up with, he was inclined to think Tony had it coming. Especially since Tony hadn't offered any explanation about Peter to the team but let them draw their own conclusions.

Tony's head tilted as though he was making up his decision. Still facing the counter, everyone watched as Tony picked up the plate with the last slice of cake and shifted it to his right hand as if weighing it. Bruce stepped into the doorframe and Natasha shifted away from Steve's right side. There was a split second where Tony began to move and Bucky's hand flew up in front of Steve's face to catch the slice of cake. Except it wasn't thrown at Steve.

Tony merely flipped the plate over, dumping the last slice into the disposal and using his left to turn it on. Natasha burst into tears with silent laughter as Bucky lowered his arm. Steve frowned at the waste of cake, but, knowing better than to say anything, nodded that he should have seen it coming. Tony returned to his seat, smiling cheerily.

"Gosh, sorry, Steve, it seems like Bucky got the last slice after all. Pete, Ned, and May are already out at the pool, actually. Some people wake up in the morning and do things with heir day."

Bucky sighed and slid his plate with half a slice to Steve.

"You don't have…"

"Steve, if you reject this cake, I'm telling them every embarrassing story I know about you."

Steve picked up the fork without arguing. Bruce had come back into the room once he could tell they weren't in danger of another food fight.

"What kind of embarrassing stories?"

Steve gave Bucky a concerned look, like he wasn't sure himself.

"Yea, old man, what do you have on me?"

In answer to Steve calling him old, Bucky wiped his mouth with a napkin and smiled at Bruce.

"That's a very good question."

"Bucky, I'm eating the cake."

"But Steve, he asked me a question, it would be rude not to answer. The kids these day deserve to learn from their elder's mistakes and as the most mature person in this room, I think I'd be amiss to enlighten them. Eat your cake."

Nobody dared to interrupt, dirt on Steve was hard to come by and it wasn't often that he irritated Bucky into telling stories.

"So you all know how he got the name 'Captain America', right?"

"Bucky…"

"You see, he started out as a mascot…"

"Buck, I'm sorry I called you old."

"Thanks, Steve, I appreciate it. So, anyway, he got pulled into the USO effort and if you think his outfits nowadays are something, you should have seen the tights they had him in back then. Steve, you think anybody has the reels from your movies?"

Steve turned a little pink and refused to answer, focusing entirely on his cake. Tony caught Bucky's eye and started typing into his phone. The two of them tended to avoid each other, but teasing Steve seemed to be a level playing field for both of them. Steve had taken solace that SHIELD had destroyed or buried a lot of his old propaganda things out of security, especially after he had discovered YouTube. He hadn't been so sure of was if Howard had hidden a stash of it himself, but Tony's apparent distaste of Captain America from his father's obsession had led Steve to believe Tony had it destroyed. It wasn't until now that he recognized that Tony might never have thought to look for it before now.

Tony stood up quickly, "Apparently, according to the Stark Historical Archives index, there's a whole bunch of my dad's stuff from World War II in the remaining warehouse on this property. I thought we took care of all the warehouses." He called Happy immediately, while the rest of the group cleaned up their plates for what was clearly going to be some sort of historical adventure to embarrass Steve.

"Happy, what's this I'm reading about the 1940's archive still on property? I thought we moved everything."

"Sir, I think you'll remember me telling you that we wanted you to go through it before boxing it up. There seemed to be a lot of things with sentimental value…"

"Yes, which is why I wanted you to box it up for me. So it's all still here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cool, I'm gonna go through it today."

"Sir, I'd like to be there to help…"

"No, that's okay, I'm getting Steve, Bucky, Clint, Natasha, and Bruce to help."

"But the archivists…"

"It'll be fine. They'll be gentle."

A plate crashed into the sink behind him, making Tony wince as Happy sighed on the other end of the phone.

"Whatever you want boss, it's got your access code."

"Thanks, Hap."

"Please be careful."

"Yep. See ya."

Tony hung up and started out the door, pulling up an aerial view of the area to figure out where the building had been left. The rest of the crew trailed after him in varying degrees of curiosity. It wasn't often that Tony dug into family history, so there was an edge of worry about how this was going to go for Bruce, Natasha, and Clint. Tony seemed so driven to find something on Steve, he was forgetting all the other things it might drag up.


End file.
